Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 199 How Can You Do Research Without Reviewing Papers?

"Hagrid?"

Hermione told everyone about the conversation she overheard between Murphy and Professor McGonagall, "Maybe we should go ask him about it."

"But we don't know Hagrid well," Harry said.

Unlike in the original story, Harry didn't have much contact with Hagrid because he lived with Sirius Black, and they weren't friends yet. Although it seemed like Hagrid should be easier to deal with than the professors, if he suddenly went to ask him this, he would definitely be rejected, right?

The four were silent for a moment, then Hermione suddenly said, "Ron, didn't you want a new wand?"

Ron was puzzled. "What's wrong?"

"I suddenly remembered that Professor Murphy seems to be researching wands lately, and he's recruiting assistants for wand making. Maybe he'd be willing to make you a new wand."

"But what does this have to do with Hagrid?" Ron couldn't keep up with the girl's train of thought.

"Professor Murphy makes wands right next to Hagrid's cabin."

……

The second practical lesson.

Murphy provided feedback and guidance on the project proposals submitted by each group.

"Malfoy Group, your research paper is titled 'An Analysis of the Superiority of Purebloods'..."

"Although the format of this topic is still too general and has too strong a subjective bias, I have to say that it is indeed a good topic."

Seeing Malfoy's smug expression, Murphy continued:

"However, I suggest changing the title of the research topic to: An Analysis of the Influence of Wizard Bloodline on Magical Abilities."

"In the section on methods and plans for conducting the research, you haven't written anything of value. It's just some snippets of information advocating bloodline theory that you found somewhere. This won't do."

"My suggestion is to conduct a statistical analysis and first define what constitutes pureblood and what constitutes mixed-race. For example, does pureblood mean having no Muggle ancestry for ten generations, or does it mean five generations? Mixed-race individuals can also be identified by their proportion of purebloods, such as the percentage of Muggle ancestry within those five generations, etc..."

"Then, conduct a survey and set up some items that can reflect the differences in magical abilities, such as academic performance in school, or if conditions permit, you can set it up to be more specific, such as the grades in certain subjects, or the ability of a certain type of magic."

"Finally, we will conduct a statistical analysis of the data collected from this survey to confirm or refute the relationship between purebloods and magical abilities."

"As for statistical methods, if you're not familiar with them, I can recommend some books to you: 'Fundamentals of Statistics,' 'Statistical Survey,' 'Regression Analysis,' etc. Your projects should start with understanding these books. I'll check your progress in the next class."

To do research, you can't do it without first reviewing papers. As a supervisor, the first step is of course to make a reading list.

Malfoy looked shocked.

What?

I just wanted to take this opportunity to show off a bit, and you want me to go back to school?

Gore and Crabbe looked completely bewildered. What is statistics? What is analysis?

The other two Ravenclaw girls, who had practically been dragged in, and a Hufflepuff boy glared at the three idiots with hatred. "It's all your fault! You insisted on writing on this topic!"

However, in reality, the other groups experienced similar situations.

"Dian Group, regarding your research on flight, I suggest you start with the principles of flight of flying brooms. My recommended reading list is: 'Basic Techniques of Flying Brooms,' 'The History of Flying Brooms,' and other flight-related knowledge, such as 'Bird Flight' and 'Basic Principles of Several Flying Machines.'"

"Qiu Zhang Group, you're interested in deformation? That happens to be my area of ​​focus. I suggest you start with 'The Fundamental Principles of Animagus.' I also have some research books I can recommend, which I believe will be helpful to your research."

"Hero Group, oh, that's a good name." Murphy looked at Hermione's research proposal. "Research on souls and personalities. Hmm... that's a broad topic, but the research objectives are very clear: one is to achieve communication with the deceased through the study of souls, and the other is to achieve memory retrieval. Very specific."

Murphy glanced at Harry and Tom sitting below and understood.

"In that case, I suggest you approach it from two angles. One aspect is communicating with the deceased. I recommend starting with ghosts and portraits. Reference books for this include 'Ghost Studies,' 'How Ghosts Arise,' 'The Kingdom of the Dead,' 'Portrait Techniques,' and 'Advanced Portrait Making.'"

"The most worthy of study regarding memory retrieval is naturally Legilimency. This spell itself is very complex, and related books include: 'Invading the Brain,' 'Mind Reading,' 'Case Studies of Legilimency Applications,' and 'Walking in the Garden of Memories.'"

"Some of these books are quite dangerous. I hope you can start with the simpler ones. If you really need to study banned books, you can ask me for an autograph."

After reviewing each of the dozens of groups in the class, Murphy's throat was practically hoarse, and the entire afternoon had basically passed by like that.

Finally, Murphy said, "I'll compile a table of the book list I mentioned earlier for everyone later. You can borrow books from the library as needed. For banned books, you'll need my signature, but you can apply in advance. Also, some of the books in my recommended reading list are Muggle books, and I'll prepare those for you."

Just as he was about to leave get out of class, Harry called him back.

"Professor, I heard you're recruiting assistants for wand making, is that right?"

Murphy's wand-making business has been going quite poorly lately.

The manufacturing process book I got from Ollivander did indeed list all the steps, but it was vague about the specific details.

For example, in the production of wands, it is not specified how much space should be left in the core, what the requirements are for the shape and proportion of the wand, or what the key points are for mixing potions. The most frequently used words are "appropriate amount" and "moderate," which mainly rely on intuition.

Furthermore, the book does not explain the principles of wands or the standards for their quality, so Murphy could not find the trick at all. The wand he made by feeling his way out was not much different from an ordinary wooden stick.

At first, he thought it was a problem with the wand core, so he replaced the core with his own hair. Later, he thought it was a problem with the wood, so he asked Hagrid to bring him a lot of wand wood, but the final product was still unsatisfactory.

Murphy then understood why Ollivander wasn't afraid of his skills being outdone; there was probably some real skill involved.

Blindly trying things out is pointless, Murphy realized, and he needed to find a set of standards.

To this end, he designed several experiments and planned to recruit a few junior wizards to help with the testing. A few days ago, he posted a recruitment notice on the bulletin board, offering one gold coin per week as payment. Hermione and the others were the first to ask him about this.

Murphy glanced at Harry. "That's right, so, you want to give it a try?"

The young wizards nodded.

"Okay, come with me."

……

Murphy led a few young wizards to the vicinity of Hagrid's cabin.

To make it easier to source materials nearby, he built a wooden shed nearby as his wand-making workshop.

Inside, there were only a few simple worktables. One table was filled with various carving knives, saws, planes and other tools, as well as wood scraps. Another table was filled with bottles and jars, which seemed to contain some animal tissues. There was even a potion worktable in the shed, with an automatic stirring crucible on it bubbling away.

Hagrid was chopping wood outside the cabin when he saw Murphy and greeted him.

Harry and Ron greeted Hagrid, then the two boys winked at Hermione and Tom, before saying to Murphy, "Professor, can we go and talk to Hagrid?"

"certainly."

Harry and Ron went to Hagrid to gather information, and Murphy glanced at Hermione and Tom, who were left behind. "How's your math?"

(End of this chapter)